Saturday, May 3, 2008

Sorry I haven't been around for a few. I've been slaving away at the computer, trying to get this damn thing finished. I'm so close--two chapters and an epilogue, that's it. After that, I'm done. Retool the opener, polish out the scratches, and after that it's the long, hard slog to find an agent. Here's hoping.

Anyway, just asking everyone to please be patient. I've worked on this thing for a year, and I'm pulling overtime just to get it wrapped up. This is my baby. This is all I've ever wanted. I appreciate all the support. I promise I'll be back soon.

And this guy used to be one of the producers on a network that currently is leading this stupidity.

And yes, I'm generalizing and Chez is addressing a specific issue. But if you believe for a moment that 98% of the content put up on any broadcast journalism network is worth considering before your next vote, your brains are processed tuna. (For NPR this figure is lowered to about 50%, and that's only because of Car Talk and Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me.)

I watched CNN with Wolf Blitzer for about half-an-hour yesterday while getting my hair cut. My barber, who's a really sweet guy and is voting for Obama, was just perplexed at how Wright could have said what he did in sermons and over the last week.

Joe's an excellent barber, but it shouldn't surprise you he had to take the state barber's exam 3 times before he passed.

I keep wondering if in his actions, Wright wasn’t giving Obama what he needed to move forward. Jeremiah is not a stupid man. I do not believe he is jealous of Obama. I do not believe he is a narcissist. The narcissists get the million dollar home as soon as the church can afford it. They don’t put the church’s money into programs. . . He made a point of saying that he was not Obama’s spiritual advisor. And chided Obama for not listening to the whole sermon. Took that one off Obama’s back. I’m sure it pissed Buchanan off. He’s been trying to hang Obama with this spiritual advisor label since the beginning of this farce. Also apparently everyone else goes to church every Sunday and because Wright said Obama hadn’t heard the whole sermon, he took that weapon right out of the punditz hands. . . In my heart I believe I’ve seen Br’er Rabbit getting thrown into the briar patch.[ed: my bolding]

It does make a certain amount of sense, but I'm not sure I'm qualified to properly evaluate this. There are some pretty astute people, even in ministry. But we're talking something beyond Rove-like campaign thuggery, where you are so many steps ahead of your opposition that they don't even know they're walking in the steps you laid for them.

What are the chances that after 4 or so weeks of not communicating with the press for Wright to go on a grandstanding weekend campaign, acting how all the Homeys in the press want him to act, just so Obama finally has to throw him under the bus? No more Wright, no more issue, and Obama looks like he's acceptable to people uncomfortable with Black Liberation theology. In a moment that makes George Stephanopoulos and James Carville and their Sistah Souljah triangulation look like grade-school political strategy.

Watching salty ol’ Carville melt into a quivering puddle of tears as he tries to express gratitude to his staff on election eve is truly moving. But in current context, I’m stung by the irony of it all. Two quotes:

First from Mary Matalin (Carville’s wife and Bush I’s chief strategist), “[Clinton]’s a performer. That’s not our shtick. We are a leader, we are mature, we have experience.”

And from Carville himself, “Let me tell you what’s at stake in this election. Every time that somebody comes along that’s got some ideas, a Democrat comes along, the Republicans come up here and they ambush him… And here comes Clinton. He comes to New Hampshire, people here are hurtin’. They want hope. They want somebody with vision. He gives it to them. So what do Republicans do? They get together … and they knock him off. If they succeed this time, it’s going to be every time…. If we win this, then we have knocked this shit back forever.”

Now the management of both weblogs probably shouldn't be viewed as aligned with one side or the other unless they make a posting on the topic. So don't go harrassin' nobody. But that there's a fight is troubling thing. The Service Employees International Union has been portrayed as the upstart new labor organization, and the only one to show consistent growth in the post-modern, post-manufacturing era. Andy Stern is ambitious, has a vision, and isn't afraid of the other labor powers.

The California Nurse's Association (and it's partner National Nurses Organizing Committee) went toe-to-toe with Gov. Schwarzenegger and won their battle to increase patient-to-nurse ratios after the Governor suspended a law at the behest of the health care industry. They made Ahhhhnold not only back down, but look like a bullying slimebag in the process, and causing his public opinion to go in the toilet.

Both camps are accusing the other with being in bed with employers. SEIU claims that CNA leader Rose Ann Demaro is a union-buster; the CNA claims that the SEIU membership is stalking and harassing CNA members at work and at home.

If anyone remembers their labor history, the AFL and CIO and even the IWW at one time were kicking each other's shins as much or more then their employers. It seems these two unions are at a similar point.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

There's nothing as riveting and at the same time painful as witnessing the public meltdown of a personal relationship. When the drama is being driven by chattering friends and other gossips, ones who really can't wait for the blood to be spilt or for someone to be thrown in the grinder, the public breakup takes on another dimension as Must-See-Entertainment.

Meanwhile, two people are nursing hurt feelings and the rupture of a long-term friendship. Wondering how the other could betray the other. Wondering how their friend could violate what they affirmed as their bedrock moral codes. Wondering how the other could have forgotten the love they had for one another.

They almost pulled it out, you know. The one we think of as the class orator had been getting flack for days about what his friend, the guy who preached, said months and years ago in his church. The orator was told that since the preacher said all these nasty, nasty things, he needed to get rid of him. Tell him that he was a racist and a lousy human being and throw him out of his life because he'd only Weigh Him Down in the future. The gossips wanted to see fealty to themselves and blood before they would promote the orator. The orator instead went to the crowd. Pulled off a brilliant speech - he said that he didn't believe in the objectionable things the preacher had said, but that the preacher was a great man and a great friend. And I'm not going to betray a friend.

And then it went wrong. The preacher was feeling at first like the gossips had torn him into thousand little pieces, and then restored whole in 10 minutes of words. Felt both invulnerable and defensive. Torn down by man and restored by Man with the grace of God. Said that You're Not Gettin' Rid of Me That Easy to the gossips. I am a man of God, and I am here to Prophesize to your ignorant asses!

And so the preacher made a complete fool out of himself.

It is no surprise that the Devil uses pride to undermine preachers so often.

Handed their tools by the guy they wanted to tar, the gossips made short work of the preacher. The orator, shocked by his friend's behaviour and words, accordingly threw away the friendship. As they wanted all along.

And I imagine tonight that the orator and the preacher this evening are grieving over the loss of each other in their lives, while at the same time venting their anger at one another's defections and betrayals.

And the gossips pass the sordid details into the wee hours of the morn, counting the esteem of the crowd.